Why did i blow my speakers?

[heyhi 10+ year member]

If u look about 2 months ago I asked about the image dynamics ctx 6.5s comps 100 watt rms for my fronts. Anyway, ordered from amazon woofer ect seller. spents over 350 for both sets.

I got and installed them along with 5.25 75 watt rms for the rears. Powered by a 60 x4watt rms punch amp. pioneer touch screen receiver.

I wired it my self. All pos to pos neg to neg. the front woofers and tweeters went on the cross over. rears went rite to amp. Cross Over was at 0 db The front gain on amp was at about 90 % and frequency was at half. I didnt like how it sounded so i put the freq at 3/4 toward the bass end, thats when my driv side fronts blew. rear gain was always at half and freq at 3/4.. The radio was set at 125 for highs,0 bass booster, mid loud.

Anyway after maybe 3 weeks the rears stopped working completely. 2 weeks after that my front left stopped working. woofer and tweeter at same time I think. Right woofer still sounds really good but tweeter is very low.

Why did these blow? was it me or are these speakers garbage? ive always done my own audio first time i blow interiors. Im getting infinity 6.5 perfects comps, and I dont wanna blow those too.

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[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like you may have been pushing a clipped signal from your amp. Did you set your gains any way besides just turning them up to where you thought they would be good?

 

[4OZGLOVES 10+ year member]

Set gains with a dmm. You most likely clipped them to death. The gain is not a volume control.

 

[heyhi 10+ year member]

I just set them where I thought they would be loudest without blowing. How do I set them with a meter? Im an electrician but low voltage aint my thing. please explain.

 

[Better-Action 10+ year member]

Gains improperly set, loud feature turned on, no idea how to set a crossover. Sounds like you probably clipped them to hell.

Google "setting gain with dmm" plenty of YouTube videos should pop up.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

I just set them where I thought they would be loudest without blowing. How do I set them with a meter? Im an electrician but low voltage aint my thing. please explain.

Shoulda learned about that before. Ah, retrospect. There is a sticky and a number of threads on here, just do a search.

 

[heyhi 10+ year member]

Well Im on here to learn. My internet is horrible, can some one explain hot to set the gain and cross over and freaq?

 

[04murdalanche]

Sounds like a clipped signal

 

[Better-Action 10+ year member]

Start off by setting all eq flat. 0 across the boards. Turn loud off. No mid, nothing. Don't use this feature.

Find the rms of your amplifier. Say its 500 rms. Take that and multiply by the impedience you will be running. Say it is 500rms at 2 ohms, multiply those, we are at 1000. Find the square root of 1000 and that's the voltage you should be pulling for 500 rms. The square root of 1000 is 31.6. Set headunit at your Max listening volume (be sure not to clip from the deck) try 70-75% Max volume. Disconnect your speakers connect multimeter to speaker terminals and increase gain until you hit your desire voltage.

If it is a multi channel amp say 4 channel, with a seperate gain for front and rear. Treaty each gain and its channels as a seperate amp. So if.you have a 4x100. Set it as if you were doing 2x100 amps. Same steps just doing it twice.

Been a while since I've set a gain this way so if I missed anything feel free to chime in people.

 

[heyhi 10+ year member]

If thats the case the amp should come pre set. Instead of turning the gain knob is should have a 2 4 or 8 ohm option. But anyway after thats done what settings on the radio should be adjusted? My seetings are hi pass 125 100 80 or 60

loudnes low mid high , bass booster 0-6 and another option i forget what, but its like a volume booster 0 -4. and the eq. What about the crossover for the comps 0 db - or +3 db

 

[Better-Action 10+ year member]

Headunits put out different voltages to the RCA output. Some headunits put out lower voltage than others. The gain knob is to adjust your amplifier to match the voltage your HU is putting out.

So say your HU has 2v output. You adjust the amp gain to put out its maximum power with a 2v input.

 

[Better-Action 10+ year member]

If thats the case the amp should come pre set. Instead of turning the gain knob is should have a 2 4 or 8 ohm option. But anyway after thats done what settings on the radio should be adjusted? My seetings are hi pass 125 100 80 or 60loudnes low mid high , bass booster 0-6 and another option i forget what, but its like a volume booster 0 -4. and the eq. What about the crossover for the comps 0 db - or +3 db

High pass filter will filter out frequencies below the number. Setting it at 100 will cut out frequencies below 100 for your high level output aka door speaker outputs. Try it at 80. It will filter out frequencies that your speakers can't really reproduce anyway and that may damage your speaker trying to play.

Loudness off.

Bass boost 0.

Volume booster 0.

 

[orphe 10+ year member]

Pray its your amp!

take those speakers out and do a smell test. If anything smells burned/crispy then the speakers are gone!

 

[Shinju 10+ year member]

Whoops!